Atlantis, Paradise Island, The Bahamas

Atlantis, Paradise Island, Bahamas is really six different hotels, all at different prices and comfort levels, decor, etc.  They are the Beach Tower, Coral Towers, Royal Towers, Harbourside, The Cove and The Reef.  The Beach and Coral Tower are old hotels that were part of the Resorts International acquisition by the company the owns Atlantis.  Anyway, I’ve stayed in the Royal Towers twice and the Coral Towers once; my preference is the Royal Towers, nice, large room with nice decor and amenities.  Our first stay we had a French balcony and our second we were casino guests so we were on the ocean side on the 12th floor with a full balcony which was great for sitting and enjoying our view of the Atlantis lagoon and the Atlantic ocean beyond.  It’s fun to sit on your balcony and watch them feed the marine life in the marine habitat which wraps around the base of the Royal Towers so we could literally sit on our balcony and watch the incredible Manta ray.  Back to the hotels, I’ve heard a rumor that the plan is to eventually tear down both the Beach Tower and Coral Towers and replace them with new hotels that I’m sure will reflect the Atlantean theme in their architecture, also it’s my understanding that these hotels would be designed to appeal to large groups and conventions and I’m sure they’ll add more meeting space.  This makes sense in the mid-to-long term now that The Cove and The Reef are open and generating room revenue.  I also was told last October that they’ve bought another parcel next door (Hurricane Hole, home to the original Green Parrot) and will be expanding Harbourside which is their timeshare condominium resort which is also part of Atlantis.  There is also the One & Only Ocean Club which is also

on Paradise Island, it’s an older, very posh Colonial style resort farther up

Cabbage beach and as it’s also owned by Kerzner International you have full access to all of Atlantis.

Here are photographs of each of the six, distinct hotel of Atlantis, Paradise Island, Bahamas:

Beach Tower, Atlantis, Paradise Island, The Bahamas

The Beach tower is one of the original hotels that Kerzner purchased from Resorts International.  It’s considered the ‘entry-level’ hotel within the family of six hotels that actually comprise Atlantis.  I haven’t stayed there myself; you read reviews just like with any hotel some love it and some hate and others are ambivalent.  I’ll just stick to placing in the hotel food chain that is Atlantis and leave the reviews to those who’ve stayed in the Beach tower.

Coral Towers, Atlantis, Paradise Island, The Bahamas

Hopefully the rumor we’ve heard is true and the Beach and Coral towers will come under the wrecking ball to make way for updated, Atlantean themed architecture more like the Royal Towers, The Cove or The Reef all of which are more visually consistent in maintaining the Atlantis theme.  We’ve heard from a lady who works in the sales department at the Harbourside Atlantis timeshare condos. and she said they’ll tear them down and replace them with hotels designed to appeal to conventions and large groups, which makes sense because that’s where the meeting space is tucked in behind the casino and those two hotels.  I’m still calling this a rumor but its from a pretty reliable resource.  She’s the same person who told us they’d purchased more land to put in another phase of Harbourside timeshare condos., and that has turned out to be true so there you have it.  It only makes sense that it would be part of the overall goals and development plans for the Atlantis resort.

FYI, in case you don’t know this Atlantis assigns a casino account to you the first time you check in whether you gamble or not.  This casino account number is programmed right into the mag stripe on all of your rooms keys upon check-in.  Your key is your resort ID, player card for tracking purposes in the casino and is used for charging anything to your room while staying in any of the six Atlantis hotels.  This is one of those times where its in your best interest to let them track your gambling (no matter how little you think it is, it helps in the grand scheme of things).  Think of it as frequent flyer miles but it’s gambling at and staying at Atlantis instead of flying.  I’m learning a lot about how to best take advantage of my ‘gaming’ relationship with Atlantis so I get the most bang for my buck.  I love to travel and I love to stay in higher-end hotels because I luxuriate in my room, for me it’s never just been a place to sleep I use my hotel room especially in the morning but throughout the day and it’s nice to have a glass of wine of cocktails and sit on the balcony and enjoy the view while ‘refueling privately in our room’ for whatever we’re doing next.

Royal Towers, Atlantis, Paradise Island, The Bahamas

The Cove Atlantis - Paradise Island, The Bahamas

Harbourside, Atlantis, Paradise Island, The Bahamas

The Reef, Atlantis, Paradise Island, The Bahamas

Atlantis, Paradise Island, The Bahamas

Pardon me I’m sure at times I’ll ramble in my posts; I’ll try not to but I get excited when I start thinking and writing about Atlantis.  Anyway, I’m going to weigh in with my personal experiences about researching, booking and enjoying the wonderful world of Atlantis.  I have to say I actually got excited when I heard Martha Stewart was also there April 2008 she stayed at The Cove for two days while filming for her TV show on NBC and Fine Living.

Anyway, I digress.  I’ll start at the beginning we went on a typical 4 day / 3 night vacation package including our hotel and airfare and we added at the time what was called the “Gourmet Meal Plan”.  It was so damn much fun plus I won money the first night – I put $3.50 in a “Tabasco Sauce” themed slot machine and I won $1,200.00 which since we had scored a deal on our vacation package MORE than paid for my trip.  Feel the love… for Atlantis.  My friend and I stayed in a “terrace promo. rate room” and our airfare, was on American Airlines (which I loved because I have a chunk of old TWA miles sitting in my AA Advantage [frequent flyer] account.

A very nice, professional woman checked us in and she gave us a wonderful room for our rate, I could actually sit on my bed and see a sliver of the Atlantic ocean beyond the tops of the palm trees.  We were on the ocean side of the Royal Towers.  We really enjoyed staying in the Royal Towers our room was large, spacious, clean, well appointed, loved that we had a flat panel TV and high-speed internet as both my friend can go away on these mini-holidays but absolutely have to have broadband internet so we can stay on top of our business activities.

I had read that you’re better off selecting and making your dinner reservations sooner rather than later while you’re still at home.  So, I did that.  We selected FATHOMS, NOBU, and CAFE MARTINIQUE breakfast and dinner daily are included in the Gourmet Meal Plan.  First night was Fathoms which is really fun because it has a wall of glass looking into one of the huge aquariums that is part of the marine habitat at Atlantis.  So, you’re sitting and having dinner of great food while enjoying this amazing view of manta ray and other incredible marine life swimming by the floor to ceiling, wall to wall of glass.  Simply spectacular.  The other thing I want to comment on is this, both my friend and I have had the pleasure to interact with tons of the staff at Atlantis and we always get great service.  People are always friendly and helpful so we don’t understand all these reviews you see on the ‘net about the rude, inattentive staff — not our experience.  We went the first time October 2006, returned October 2007 and just went again April 2008.  I’ve also just made our reservations with casino marketing to return this October 2008, we’re trying  The Cove this trip and my brother is traveling with us.

Anyway, this resort although a mega-resort never seems huge to us.  We enjoy the walks because there’s always interesting, beautiful things to look at along the way.  To repeat, this was a three night trip, four day trip.  We arrived in mid-afternoon on a Sunday and I had done some online research since we planned to go off resort for lunch; we wanted to eat, hopefully where the locals eat.  My friend and I both love food and especially were excited to try the Bahamian seafoods, Conch and Grouper.  Yum!

We went to The Green Parrot which is on Paradise Island a short walk from Atlantis, its on the Harbour overlooking Nassau harbour.

We love this place.  It’s one of these open air yet covered bars with tables around also and you’re right at the edge of the harbour so you have all the interesting things to watch in the harbour as well as the people around the bar.  Great food, great drinks, my Mai Tai seemed to be bottomless, every time I turned around it seemed to be topped off again.  I didn’t mind I was on holiday in this amazing, tropical paradise.  When in Rome as the saying goes…